Learning, Teaching
and Web 2.0
Mark van Harmelen

Where education could go
Practice
Exemplars of problem areas
Conclusions

Wither?
Goals and constraints

We know
People work with each other
They learn from each other
They are capable of determining what
they want to learn

Some questions
What are the values that we
want to promulgate?
How do we want to affect society?
Do we want autonomous,
independent,
self-actualised life-long learners
who decide what they want to learn
and how they learn it
If so, how do we ‘grow’ them

A Goal: Empowerment
Learners
who can take responsibility for their
education in HE and beyond
who are enthusiastic about learning
and who might play a
positive role in society

Independent learners
Autonomous learners
Learners in peer groups
Learners in CoPs
Learners in HE
Learners in the work place
Life-long learners

Set learning goals
Formulate learning strategies
and plans
Monitor progress
and mid-term correct
Formatively reflect on
methods and content

It doesn’t matter
what we teach….

It doesn’t matter
what we teach….
so long as we teach
students to become
autonomous learners

…really?
What if Dave, or you, or
I have to
go to hospital?
Should the doctors
and nurses
just have learned
what they
wanted to?
[Problem solved for
PBL in medical
education]

There are limits
to what we can
and should do
In all of this remember that
independent & peer learning,
& Web 2.0 catalysis shouldn’t
be the tail that wags the dog

Like it or not, we need to maintain the
societal role of universities -
to prepare useful members of society,
certified as approved, employable, with
particular levels of skills and knowledge

Some class practice

A couple of approaches I like
Social Constructivisim (Vygotsky)
learning in social settings
learning in groups and teams
Zone of Proximal Development / scaffolding
Constructionism (Papert)
learn by constructing artefacts to show

Teamwork is taught

Peer learning is taught

Facilitated by (Web 2.0) tools

Zone of Proximal Development
ZPD
future knowledge with
ano’s scaffolding
current
knowledge
not reachable as yet

…applied scaffolding
page
structure
content
suggestions
multi-way
suggestion /
feedback

…constructionism

…communication / participation
with
Google Groups
168 messages
68 topics
guess 75% me
but significant effect
feedback from one class member:
felt involved in a course for the first time

Interim results
Did the course create independent
learners?
Maybe, not measured
Did the course produce team-workers
Yes, definitely
Was these a result of Web 2.0?
Not directly….
But did Web 2.0 enhance the learning
process?
Yes, via social constructivist and
constructionist approaches

Exemplars for us
Assessment
Meta-cognitive skills

For independent learners
need to facilitate the acquisition of
meta-cognitive skills
For these learners to operate in
peer-group settings, need to
solve the groupwork assessment
problem

Start from learning theory and
pedagogy
Develop new tools
Perform practical experiments,
observe, feedback, redevelop, etc

a kind of
conclusion

The question
“Is Web 2.0 the point at which we
finally begin to challenge
academic mindsets around both
pedagogy and learning technology?”
[Mondays session, a question on text chat]

The question
“Is Web 2.0 the point at which we
finally begin to challenge
academic mindsets around both
pedagogy and learning technology?”
[Mondays session]
Yes, but….

Is it true that

...from dino-ed

Is it true that
with Web 2.0
we will enter
a new world of
self-motivated,
actualising,
life-long,
participatory
education ?

Not on its own!

Decide goals what we want
Consider what components we need
pedagogy, TEL, Web 2.0 catalytic tools
Carry on the experiments
develop new tools and try them out

Mark van Harmelen
Independent Consultant
Honorary Research Fellow
School of Computer Science
University of Manchester
mark@cs.man.ac.uk

All the following images creative commons licensed
New tulips by only alice
Dave in hospital by headur
Dog’s tail by borabora
Jonas’s graduation supplied by Josh Bousel
Question mark by pittam
Dinasours by unknown (sorry!)
Spiral by slightly-less-random
A thing is growing by pulpolux
Powerswitch by thomwatson
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Class photos by Eric Raffin, with one by Mark van Harmelen